Medical-pot growers could truck product to patients, new rule says

Dara Kam, News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSE — Florida marijuana dispensers could truck their product to patients, under a revised rule proposed by health regulators in advance of a workshop Friday about the state's legalization of a limited type of medical pot.

Despite complaints by nursery owners, lobbyists and others at a rule-making workshop earlier this month, health officials aren't backing away from a lottery-based system to choose the recipients of the five licenses planned. The competition is drawing operators and investors from around the world.

Kerry Herndon, owner of Kerry's Nursery in Apopka, blasted health officials for keeping the lottery provision in the proposed rule.

"It's a disaster for the patient population. You're making medicine for sick children. So it's like anybody at random within the pool and not the most qualified? Really?" said Herndon, whose nursery is eligible for one of the licenses and who is interested in pursuing one.

The state has until Jan 1. to come up with the regulations regarding a strain of marijuana, authorized by the Republican-dominated Legislature and approved by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year, that purportedly does not get users high but can alleviate life-threatening seizures in children with severe epilepsy.

Under the new law, patients who suffer from severe muscle spasms or cancer would also be eligible to get cannabis that is low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD, if their doctors order it.

The law restricts dispensary applicants — who would grow, process and distribute the low-THC product, usually a paste or oil — to nurseries that have done business in Florida for at least 30 years and grow 400,000 plants or more. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has identified at least 55 nurseries that currently meet the criteria.

Nursery owners have been bombarded by offers from investors and operators eager to cash in on the state's newest regulated industry. Rumors are rampant about nurseries that are demanding millions from potential partners or growers who are being offered money to stay on the sidelines.

Many of those interested in "Charlotte's Web," a low-THC strain named after a Colorado girl, are hoping to get started in the pot business now with an eye on a proposed constitutional amendment before voters in November that would allow doctors to order "traditional" medical marijuana for certain patients.

In the meantime, eligible nursery operators are pairing up with lobbyists and lawyers as they wade into turf unfamiliar to even the most sophisticated regulatory experts.

The law allows one dispensing organization in each of five regions around the state. It also allows the dispensing organizations to have "an infrastructure reasonably located to dispense low-THC cannabis to registered patients statewide or regionally as determined by the department."

At the rule-making workshop earlier this month, health officials heard that just five locations would be inadequate to meet patients' needs.

The new draft rule would allow dispensing organizations to deliver 30-day supplies of the medical marijuana derivative directly to patients. Potential operators are divided on the transportation issue.

"An infrastructure cannot be a truck. An infrastructure is a place," said Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist who represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association, a coalition of growers, investors and others interested in the pot business.

The proposed rule may also mean that dispensing organizations can transport their product statewide.

Giving dispensers the ability to distribute statewide as the law permits is critical, said Ron Watson, a lobbyist who is consulting for a group of former pharmaceutical executives who want one of the five licenses.

"A regional distribution system has no checks and balances and will punish the patient through cost and availability. A patient should be able to choose the best medicine regardless of where it is grown," said Watson, who also represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association.